Moving Breast Cancer Community Assessments into Community and Political Action: The Role of Partnerships and Collaborations in Advocacy

Susan G. Komen for the Cure's® promise is to save lives and end breast cancer forever by empowering people, ensuring quality care for all and energizing science to discover the cures. Once every two-years Susan G. Komen for the Cure's local Affiliates across the nation conduct comprehensive community-provider needs assessments to identify social – cultural and structural barriers that influence access and utilization of quality breast cancer care. A significant component of the assessment is to identify priorities that lead to the development of action plans and strategies to address the needs through resource mobilization among key stakeholders. Findings from the assessments highlight important policies that influence access to care and the seamless transition throughout the continuum of care, particularly for uninsured, underinsured, underserved and high-risk populations across the nation. As a result, coalitions, partnerships and collaboratives formed among key stakeholders to strategically respond to the political context and policies that have influenced access to breast cancer services for the underserved in several areas across the nation. This presentation describes the role of community needs assessments in identifying the political structure that influence access to breast cancer care and the process of engaging key stakeholders to align their interests to address the needs in their communities. The impact of these initiatives on policy and the long-term implications and directions for the future are discussed.